It was only fair for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to get grilled by Democrats and Republicans in the Senate this week. He’s a proud critic of the Beltway establishment who regularly implicates leaders of both parties in serious — and sometimes far-fetched — plots against the public. He’s a newcomer to one party and convert from the other, inviting reasonable scepticism from both.
After months of building momentum and the Sisyphean confirmation of Pete Hegseth last week, two GOP sources with knowledge of the confirmation felt nervous about Kennedy’s odds on Wednesday morning. Although one source in the hearing said that “the room was totally with him”, the audience’s support wasn’t matched by the Finance Committee’s. GOP senators like Bill Cassidy and James Lankford interrogated Kennedy on abortion. So, too, did Democrats from Catherine Cortez Masto to Bernie Sanders, who demanded Kennedy explain his rationale for backing the anti-abortion GOP.
Most discussion of Kennedy’s conspiratorial leanings came from Democrats. Under intense scrutiny from Democrat Ron Wyden, the aspiring health secretary stated: “I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine. I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those vaccines”. “Anybody who believes that ought to look at the measles book you wrote saying parents have been misled into believing that measles is a deadly disease,” Wyden replied. “That’s not true.”
When I asked Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a standard Trump-supporting Republican, about Kennedy several weeks ago, he expressed total confidence in the nominee and sympathy with his position on American health. At a swing-strict polling location days before the November election, I even watched GOP voters dance with a life-size cutout of RFK Jr.
Kennedy’s hearing could have been scripted in advance by casual observers of the Senate. Neither the rancour or the praise comes as a surprise. Scepticism is clearly warranted of a convert and reformer asking to take the helm of a massive regulatory agency. It’s also entirely possible that Bernie Sanders talked tough to make a “yes” vote go down more easily with the Left.
Kennedy, it mustn’t be forgotten, is now extremely popular with Republican voters. As the confirmation hearing got underway, Harry Enten, senior date reporter of CNN, posted on X: “The transformation of RFK Jr.’s favourability ratings is astounding [..]. He’s one of the most popular people in the country among the GOP. Last Ipsos poll has him at a +60 pt net favourability. Dem hate RFK Jr, but with a GOP Senate majority… He’s a favourite for confirmation.”
If Republicans can’t get Kennedy across the finish line, Trump may still find another position for him. It may even be a position of significant influence, even without Senate confirmation. However Sanders and other Democrats who would previously have applauded a Kennedy nomination (Barack Obama almost did it) vote this time around, MAHA is now a part of the Republican Party — whether either party likes it or not.
Voting against Kennedy will not purge MAHA. For Senators on the Left with principled objections to the status quo of American health, though, voting against him could squander a rare opportunity for total reform. “This is our last chance”—which seems to be what the public actually wants.
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SubscribeOh, one other thing: I find it fascinating that there’s little acknowledgment of or even recognition of the very clear fact that the U.S. is in the midst of a massive health crisis. Take a look at all-cause mortality factors, especially diet, obesity and sedentariness. Take a look at lifespans. Take a look at endocrine disorders and skyrocketing diagnoses of maladies such as autism and chronic depression. RFK, Jr. deserves kudos for pointing out the obvious, at the very least. He deserves additional admiration for daring to confront some of the most powerful institutions in the modern western world, the international pharmaceutical companies (whose profits are negatively aligned with the health of the entire human population).
There are some whacky comments on here. Can’t accuse RFKJ of being weird when your posts are even weirder.
That said, is Emily ignoring the fact that Bernie and Warren received massive funding from Big Pharma. And Warner was apparently trembling while questioning RFKJ. One has to wonder why? No curiosity about all this, Emily? No evaluation of the interrogators and their motives?
Welcome to American politics. We’re glad you’re here with us in 2024. We are currently in the process of realigning our political parties to more accurately reflect the opinions and attitudes of our customers, the people. We estimate the process will be completed in the next four to ten years. In the meantime, please excuse our mess.
Only 50% of the people
I still have hope that some Democrat will manage to appeal directly to the people and cut out the donor class and the ivory tower academics. I’d love to see a younger version of Bernie Sanders show up and do the Democrats what Trump did to the Republicans. It isn’t as if the Democratic voter base is all that fond of big business or the plutocrats who think their money gives them a right to decide policy. The Democratic party is easier to control, but if they keep losing, the pressure will mount try something else. A Republican party with a platform of tariffs and economic nationalism running against a Democratic party running on a platform of wealth/asset taxes and breaking up big corporations. That’s the endgame I hope for. Doubt it will happen.
Where did all the comments disappear to. I was just prepping myself to counter some of the opinions…
MAhA is structured much like Woke (it’s not Woke, is structured like Woke) in that it is a quasi religion of some truth mixed with lies aimed at totalizing individuals out of there own rational thought to serve a grift…. For example: Truth = Red Dye bad, Lie = “Grounding” = good/ valuable… It’s spiritual like dogma masquerading as science…
RFK Jr is certainly Trump’s strangest pick. His whole career has been as an anti-science luddite, starting with and still including nuclear energy. I see the appointment as an attempt, forcibly not successful, to duct-tape aging hippie moms into the MAGA bandwagon. If he is confirmed I expect some picturesque fights with Musk.
And general mayhem for “The people”.
In retrospect, this was Trump’s most gimmicky alliance. Maybe he liked him because, like Tulsi and Vance, he was anti-neocon too. I heard rumours that his involvement helped a little with the female swing vote i.e. late middle-aged women who used to vote for Clinton.
Trump likes anyone who likes him, and anyone whose nomination will be sticking it to Biden regardless of their lack of qualifications. It’s another form of DEI.
HHS oversees 13 different divisions, 10 of which could be eliminated and no one would be the wiser. The other 3 don’t need an HHS bureaucratic overlay to accomplish their missions. Rather than arguing over who should be at the helm of the HHS, we should be arguing over whether it’s needed at all.
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
“Scepticism is clearly warranted of a convert and reformer asking to take the helm of a massive regulatory agency.” Oh really? By whom? Could it be a reactive position by those who are part of the problem at the massive regulatory agency?
Some videos show Bobby Kennedy working out without a shirt on, showing a “ripped” body that seems incongruous for a 70-year-old man. Did that fitness come from working out? No, it came from anabolic steroids. It’s fake muscle mass, just as fake as his tan.
That’s the kind of man Bobby Kennedy is, as Caroline Kennedy pointed out. He’s not a bad man, in the sense of being a criminal, or a poor father to his children. People like him (especially women). He’s charismatic, and convincing.
But Bobby Kennedy has no business running an important government agency. Leave that to people with qualifications not pumped up by artifice.
Bobby Kennedy is a trial lawyer who makes a living misrepresenting the truth. He has anti-science views that make him completely unqualified for a position heading up our premier scientific institutions. But he will be confirmed. It’s all politics now, not policy. Even a figurative tinfoil hat wearer like Bobby Kennedy (he believes radio waves are a danger to health!) is taken seriously.
You don’t win law suits centred on the science by being ignorant of the science or misrepresenting the science.
Kennedy wins his lawsuits because they are rock solid on the science.
I have been both a lawyer and a scientist for decades. I have looked at several lawsuits that Bobby Kennedy has brought. Science has nothing to do with them. For example, he claims that 5G and WiFi radio waves cause brain cancer and break down the blood-brain barrier. That’s delusional. There’s no science to support it. (I should know — my father was a well-known expert in the field of bioelectromagnetics, specifically the biological effects of radio frequency radiation.) He is not much different from a person who goes around in a tinfoil hat.
If you could give me an example of a case you think Bobby Kennedy won because he was rock solid on the science, I’d be happy to address it in detail. Meanwhile, here are some positions Bobby Kennedy takes that have no support in science:
— vaccines cause autism and other diseases
— genetically modified foods are harmful
— Cellphone and wi-fi radiation breaks down the blood-brain barrier and causes cancer and other diseases
— Roundup causes cancer
— ultra-processed foods cause chronic diseases
— HIV is not the cause of AIDS
— high-fructose corn syrup is more harmful than table sugar
Fauci was eminently qualified. See how that turned out.
I’m no fan of Tony Fauci, but he was eminently qualified and, even for all his mistakes during the pandemic, he did a good job.
The only people who could have seen this blundering moron today and thought, yep, he’s the man for the job, are the same fools who think that an alcoholic rapist should be running the Department of Defense (first big job – investigate a retired general because he annoyed the boss!) or that a fat buffoon like Trump should have the nuclear codes.
Really, what is wrong with you people?!?!?
Thanks for your childish ad hom attacks, CS. Hope you feel better having got them off your chest. Do you have any constructive, adult thoughts to add? Or is your aim simply further to fuel division, rancour and indignation?
I like to think that Unherd is a place where reasonable, intelligent adults can read, digest and discuss material that might be challenge their worldviews, and amicably and respectfully agree to disagree, without descending into silly playground insults. You know can do better than this, don’t you?
I really do not like CS style, and it is certainly counterproductive. But honestly, there is little sign these days of
The entire site, articles and comments, is a flood of enthusiastic Trump fanboys now. Any comment, polite or not, that challenges that particular worldview is voted down and then removed till the debate is finished – CS comment will not last an hour. As for the rest of us, we take note of the fact that all of Unherd (and a majority of the US) think that Trump, Hegseth, Gabbard, and Kennedy Jr are brilliant individual sent by God to save America and the world. It is too much to expect that we should respect you for it.
Well said.
“You know can do better than this, don’t you?”
I don’t think he can.
What a load of rubbish.
Exactly!!